Brown: Rauner-led GOP elevates Lisa Madigan on party hit list

SHARE Brown: Rauner-led GOP elevates Lisa Madigan on party hit list
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Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan speaks before Kim Foxx takes the stage after winning her bid for Cook County State’s Attorney, during a 2016 General Election watch party at Moe’s Cantina, Tuesday night, Nov. 8, 2016. File Photo. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Follow @MarkBrownCSTIllinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan until now has stayed mostly beyond the reach of the Republican campaign to tar her father, House Speaker Michael Madigan, as Public Enemy No. 1.

On Monday, Republicans signaled a shift in strategy, elevating the attorney general to a more prominent spot on their enemies list by portraying her as a tool of her father.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider held a briefing for reporters to call attention to a new attack video targeting Lisa Madigan on the party’s bossmadigan.com website, which depicts the speaker as a corrupt cartoon character.

At issue is Lisa Madigan’s decision to challenge a court order that has allowed state workers to continue to be paid while the state goes without a budget.

OPINION

Follow @MarkBrownCSTSchneider said it is “clear” the attorney general acted at this time because she was doing “her father’s bidding” in an effort to thwart Gov. Bruce Rauner. Of course, it’s Rauner’s big bankroll funding the GOP’s effort.

The attorney general contends the Illinois Constitution requires workers not be paid unless there is an appropriation approved through the Legislative process. I’ve already indicated that makes sense to me.

She said the Illinois Supreme Court spoke directly to this point while ruling on a separate case that became final last May.

Madigan, who first raised this issue in July 2015 but was defeated in the lower courts, said she said did not go back to court until now because she was trying to allow the governor and Legislature to work things out on their own.

Having examined the timeline in detail, I can appreciate her reasoning, although I also think that’s how she put herself in a bit of a pickle here.

If the legal issues were as clear as she now says they are, and I think they might be, then I would argue she should have stepped in last May. The attorney general’s job is to enforce the law, not engage in political calculations on whether it is necessary.

The fact that she did not do so speaks to a certain reticence on Madigan’s part to engage on issues that could pull her into the political muck.

Too late for that now. If nothing else, Monday’s attack by the Republicans signals there’s more mud coming in her direction.

They could be trying to further goad the speaker, whose political muscle played no small part in her original election in 2002. Or they might be trying to soften up his daughter as a potential 2018 gubernatorial opponent.

It definitely shows Rauner is concerned her legal maneuver could prevail in court — and that he wants to make sure somebody else gets blamed if it indeed results in a shutdown.

Rauner has continually warned that the speaker wants a crisis to force the governor’s hand in budget talks. Indeed, there’s plenty to suggest the speaker shares his daughter’s interpretation of the law in this regard.

As I’ve said previously, though, state government already is in crisis, just not one that seems to overly concern the governor because it mostly affects social service programs and higher education.

Defending her actions in a recent op-ed in the Springfield Journal Register, the attorney general denied she wants to foment a larger crisis.

“By asking the court to uphold the Constitution, we will finally solve this destructive crisis—not create one,” she wrote.

I believe Lisa Madigan makes her own policy decisions, but I also think she opened herself up to this type of criticism when she chose to run for statewide office while her father held so powerful a position.

After 14 years of watching her in the public eye as attorney general, Illinois voters have formed their own opinions about Lisa Madigan.

It won’t be as easy to pass her off as a cartoon.

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